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Smart Card Reader/Writer Not Working: URGENT — Parallax Forums

Smart Card Reader/Writer Not Working: URGENT

NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
edited 2013-07-15 19:44 in General Discussion
I seem to have an issue with my Smart Card Reader/Writer that hopefully someone can shine some light on. I marked this urgent since this is for my Micro Medic project. I emailed Tech Support also but thought maybe someone here has had the same issue in the past and knows what the problem is. When I first received my Reader/Writer a few months ago I tested it out and it worked fine. Now today when I was trying to work with it, it seems to be malfunctioning. I am using a BOE Board with a BS2 Stamp and a 7.5V wall wart power supply. When I run the demo program for this card, http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/685/Default.aspx?txtSearch=smart+card or any card for that matter, the reader comes up with the Debug terminal with the choices of 1 or 2 whether the card is inserted or not. I do not get the "No Card Inserted" error message. With no card in if I choose to view the card data it shows 8 pages of 00. If I choose to write to the card with it inserted and choose the correct page, and block and enter 11, no data is being written to the card. It will even let me use option 2 if no card is inserted. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Like I said, this is part of my MM project and time is running out.

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2013-07-02 14:58
    Being that it was working and is now not working my first thought would be to rule things out by comparing to a known good. If you have only the one reader then the question becomes, do you only have the one card? If not, does the problem occur with more than one card?
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-02 15:55
    I only have one reader but have several cards, It does the same thing with all of them using the various Stamp examples for each type of card. When I first tested it if there was no card inserted I would get the error stating that. Now, I do not get that error.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-03 14:41
    I just ordered another one so I will have one to see if the problem is the same. I figured for $10.00 I might as well since I really need it. Also got drawn in to the new faster servo motors and some other items. The Wild Thumper really had me pondering adding that also. Oh well, maybe I will buy myself one for Christmas this year!!!!
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2013-07-03 15:13
    Please let me know how the new reader performs on the same connections/code so we can know if something happened to the reader itself.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-03 15:16
    I will do that. I am hoping I can get the other one going because I can always use another one.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-13 21:02
    @Chris Savage, It is definitely a bad card reader issue. I received my new one last week and tested it today. The new one works just fine but the old one still does everything I explained in Post# 1. Please advise. Also, I emailed tech support yesterday about another issue. I purchased the Wild Thumper and have a bad HB-25. Should I start a new thread for that or should I contact support by phone or what?
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2013-07-14 08:26
    It all depends on how fast you need service or how complex your problem is. With a phone call, you're getting immediate service and you're getting the dynamic interaction that's often needed in sorting out something complex. With e-mail, you're not getting the interaction which you don't need when it's obvious that something is broken like when you have two HB-25s and one works and the other doesn't ... you swap them and the same one doesn't work in the other position, but the good one still works. Posting the issue on the forums is helpful when there's something complex or subtle, you have some time (a day or two) and you're looking for suggestions for possible fixes from people who may have had the same problem.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2013-07-15 15:13
    NWCCTV wrote: »
    @Chris Savage, It is definitely a bad card reader issue. I received my new one last week and tested it today. The new one works just fine but the old one still does everything I explained in Post# 1. Please advise. Also, I emailed tech support yesterday about another issue. I purchased the Wild Thumper and have a bad HB-25. Should I start a new thread for that or should I contact support by phone or what?

    For a different issue you should definitely start a new thread. If you have an e-mail into Tech Support I would wait one day at least for someone to follow up otherwise if you call in while waiting on an e-mail two people could be trying to folow up on the same issue, which is not efficient use of time.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-07-15 19:44
    @Chris Savage, I never received an email back from Tech support about this issue. However, Kevin contacted me today about another issue and I am sending the bad unit back along with the bad HB-25 I received with my Wild Thumper. I will mark this as solved.
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